Oaklawn Report #9

Three Stars of the Week

– 1st Star: American Pharoah (KY) – The Rebel Stakes was undoubtedly a weak race this year, but the 30,000 people who braved the rain to attend the races on Saturday may have watched the next Kentucky Derby winner.  American Pharoah, the 2014 2 year old colt of the year, was ultra impressive in his 3 year old debut winning the Rebel by 8 lengths and running a beyer speed figure of 100.  The scary part about those impressive numbers is the horse was barely asked to do much running…he basically galloped a triple digit beyer!  The races are certainly going to get tougher from here on out, but the brilliance this horse has displayed is something for all of racing to be excited about.

– 2nd Star: Gold Medal Dancer (KY) – The Azeri Stakes was supposed to be a total walk over for the 2014 Breeders Cup Distaff and Kentucky Oaks winner Untapable, but Gold Medal Dancer had other ideas.  After setting reasonable fractions on the front end, Gold Medal Dancer and Untapable were head and head in the stretch, but it was Gold Medal Dancer who surprising put away the champ as Untapable could not match strides and had to settle for second.  Untapable is likely to improve off of this performance, but you can’t take away the great race Gold Medal Dancer ran and the great job Donnie K Von Hemel did to get this horse to win at this level.

– 3rd Star: Race Day (KY) – It’s hard to beat Pletcher in the Razorback Handicap!  For the second year in the row he sent a shipper into Oaklawn, and for the second year in the row he picked up a victory.  This time it was Race Day who got the job done, over an extremely tough Midnight Hawk who battled him all the way to the wire.  Those two were well clear of the others in the race, as several of the big horses didn’t fire.  With this type of performance, the Oaklawn Handicap could be next.

Flop of the Week

– Tapiture (KY) – It was a bad day all around for trainer Steve Asmussen as his champion Untapable was beaten by Gold Medal Dancer in the Azeri Stakes, and Tapiture was a total non-factor in the Razorback Handicap.  Tapiture could have been bothered by the sloppy track, however he easily captures the spot of flop of the week.  Hopefully he can take a step forward next time out.

Trainer Standings

Rank	Trainer Name	Sts	1st	2nd	3rd	Total $	Per Start $	Win%	Top3	Top3%
1	Chris A. Hartman	74	15	14	7	$496,315	$NaN	20%	36	49%
1	Federico Villafranco	70	15	7	13	$350,381	$NaN	21%	35	50%
3	Steven M. Asmussen	103	14	17	15	$737,542	$NaN	14%	46	45%
4	Brad H. Cox	59	13	6	5	$450,703	$NaN	22%	24	41%
5	Chris Richard	70	11	7	9	$387,589	$NaN	16%	27	39%
6	Ron Moquett	67	10	7	5	$675,421	$NaN	15%	22	33%
7	Wayne M. Catalano	35	9	6	3	$386,695	$NaN	26%	18	51%
8	Donnie K. Von Hemel	76	8	10	13	$652,780	$NaN	11%	31	41%
8	Randy L. Morse	66	8	6	10	$259,870	$NaN	12%	24	36%
8	William N. Martin	51	8	7	9	$257,166	$NaN	16%	24	47%

Jockey Standings

Rank	Jockey Name	Sts	1st	2nd	3rd	Total $	Per Start $	Win%	Top3	Top3%
1	Ricardo Santana, Jr.	221	36	30	22	$1,420,810	$NaN	16%	88	40%
2	Ramon A. Vazquez	197	32	20	27	$1,062,653	$NaN	16%	79	40%
3	Shaun Bridgmohan	140	26	26	19	$1,021,418	$NaN	19%	71	51%
4	M. Clifton Berry	134	18	20	16	$645,514	$NaN	13%	54	40%
5	Luis S. Quinonez	120	13	12	20	$790,918	$NaN	11%	45	38%
6	Joseph Rocco, Jr.	117	12	10	13	$490,043	$NaN	10%	35	30%
6	Jareth Loveberry	151	12	18	18	$385,562	$NaN	8%	48	32%
8	Chris Landeros	79	11	10	8	$473,715	$NaN	14%	29	37%
8	Alex Birzer	136	11	13	14	$353,842	$NaN	8%	38	28%
8	Walter De La Cruz	104	11	7	16	$332,316	$NaN	11%	34	33%

Owner Standings

Rank	Owner Name	Sts	1st	2nd	3rd	Total $	Per Start $	Win%	Top3	Top3%
1	Danny R. Caldwell	72	15	8	13	$354,686	$NaN	21%	36	50%
2	Maggi Moss	32	8	3	5	$263,010	$NaN	25%	16	50%
3	West, Gary and Mary	29	6	6	3	$289,035	$NaN	21%	15	52%
4	Lieblong, Alex and JoAnn	23	5	4	1	$234,107	$NaN	22%	10	43%
4	Dream Walkin Farms, Inc.	36	5	5	4	$166,683	$NaN	14%	14	39%
4	Martin Brothers, Inc.	25	5	4	5	$159,835	$NaN	20%	14	56%
4	Midwest Thoroughbreds, Inc.	52	5	5	6	$155,746	$NaN	10%	16	31%
4	William Stiritz	38	5	3	3	$148,921	$NaN	13%	11	29%